


How We Became

by ProfessorDianthus



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: Alpha Hope, F/F, Fluff and Humor, Hafael best friends, Hope never lost her parents and uncle, Protective Hope, sad but still flirty Penelope
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-14 06:09:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29538003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProfessorDianthus/pseuds/ProfessorDianthus
Summary: Penelope was drunk and heartbroken when she stumbled upon a sweaty Hope, they talk and it becomes the start of everything.
Relationships: Hope Mikaelson/Penelope Park
Comments: 24
Kudos: 77





	1. The First Talk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you guys like it I'll write more if you don't I'll delete it and we can all act like it never happened.  
> I'd like to thank posiewaves for editing this chapter but also for pushing me to write it in the first place.  
> Thank you to ProfessorVoid as well for helping me write.
> 
> Both Penelope and Hope are 18. A lot of dead people are actually alive in this fic.  
> I hope you like it and don't hesitate to tell me what you think in the comments.

Hope never thought that Salvatore Boarding School would be the place where everything changed.

It all began on a Friday night at the gym, while her classmates were busy partying at the old mill. Hope was letting out some of the pressure that had been building all week on the already half-ripped punching bag. Had she not been so focused on her own movements she would have heard the door opening and the familiar click of heels behind her. Instead they took her by surprise and she turned suddenly at the sound of an annoying raspy voice that had, before today, never been used to address her.  
“Looking good Mikaelson, who knew you were hiding all this sexy underneath those boring cardigans. Had I known I would have tried to hit that months ago.”

“Park, are you drunk?”  
Hope asked, worried by this unusual behavior from the always level-headed witch.

  
Penelope looked her up and down, biting her lips when her eyes stumbled across the drops of sweat traveling down Hope’s throat and disappearing into her cleavage.  
“I don’t know, will you undress me and tuck me into bed if I say yes? Cause if so, then yes, I’m very drunk and I need the strong tribrid to carry me up those awfully long stairs.”

  
Had Penelope said that to anyone else they would have become a blushing and stuttering mess but Hope was not someone easily flustered and so she only found herself mildly amused by Penelope’s lack of filter and wondered for a second if she should maybe take advantage of it, but she quickly dismissed the idea since nobody would believe her anyway.  
“You know what Park? I’m feeling generous tonight so let’s go.”

  
Hope leaned down to grab her bag and toweled off her face and chest with the towel hanging around her neck. She followed Penelope out of the gym, down the corridor and, to Penelope’s surprise, continued past the stairs in the direction of the kitchen.  
“Couldn’t you wait until after you’ve dropped me off at my dorm before getting a midnight snack?”

  
Despite her protests, the green-eyed witch took a seat on a stool once they arrived in the kitchen, giving Hope the time to look for whatever she was digging for in the fridge. Penelope simply watched on and remained quiet not wanting to risk disrupting the wonderful view she had of Hope’s ass while she was bent over. She quickly turned her head away when Hope stood up, but judging by the eye roll she received from the auburn haired girl, Penelope hadn’t been fast enough. Hope didn’t say anything though and simply dropped all the ingredients to make a sandwich on the counter and started making one before she finally answered Penelope’s question.  
“We’re not here for me Park, we’re here for you. You need food to absorb all the alcohol you must have drank. What happened at that party anyway? You’re not the kind of person I thought would lose control like this, especially not in public.”

  
While Hope Mikaeslon making her a sandwich was a surprising sight to say the least, Penelope didn’t have time to dwell on it after being asked about her unusual state. Thinking about the party temporarily filled her with rage but she quickly pushed it down, not wanting to let Hope see just how upset she was. Penelope would rather have to see Landon’s hairy chest than let anyone know that something had happened at that party, so she did what she did best and deflected.  
“How would you know what kind of person I am Wolfie? Are you secretly watching me while hiding in the trees Edward Cullen style? Cause that would be weird even for you and I'm not the kind of girl who finds stalkers romantic.”

  
Penelope said with her signature mocking smile. Hope actually laughed out loud and the raven-haired girl couldn’t control the warmth that spread through her chest at the sound. She had seen Hope burst out in laughter a few times but she had never been the cause of it. Penelope surprised herself by thinking that making Hope Mikaelson laugh was something that she would like to do more from now on. The auburn girl calmed down after a few seconds and shook her head in amusement. She lowered her gaze and stared at the sandwich she had slid over to the witch before finally looking Penelope in the eyes and hesitantly beginning to speak.  
“I’ll let this blatant deflection to my question slide but only because I had no right to ask you that in the first place. I’m sorry for prying but I didn’t think that whatever had made you lose control would be more serious than a failed test or plain boredom. We can just forget about it.”

  
Hope made a dismissive hand gesture at the end of her clumsy apology and Penelope surprised herself yet again by finding the awkwardness endearing instead of annoying. She stared at the blushing tribrid in front of her and had the sudden thought that maybe talking about the party with someone else wasn’t the worst thing to do. As far as confidants go Hope Mikaelson wouldn’t be the worst person to confess her sorrows to. She had after all made her a mean turkey sandwich, so maybe she deserved a little reward.  
“Okay Cullen, because of that orgasmic sandwich I’m going to share with you one of my most shameful secrets.”  
Penelope dramatically paused making Hope lean closer, before finally letting out something she had tried to hide even from herself.  
“Alyssa and I are -or were I guess- sex buddies but she started sleeping with Jed too and I can’t say I was thrilled to learn about it. Especially since she hadn’t told either of us that she was screwing us both at the same time.”

  
Penelope sighed as she remembered having to watch Alyssa unabashedly throw herself all over Jed during the party as if she wasn’t even there. She was brought back to the present after hearing a question coming out of Hope’s mouth.  
“How did you find out if she didn’t tell you?”

  
Hope’s jaw was clenched in anger on Penelope’s behalf and she held thunder in her eyes. The emotion she was showing was a little surprising and it made Penelope wonder for a moment about the rumors calling Hope heartless and if there was any truth to them after all. Eyes still on Hope so as to not miss any of her reactions, Penelope started to tell the story of how her heart was broken… again.  
“Her room is across from mine, you know that right?”

  
Hope frowned and nodded in response.

  
“That’s how this whole thing started. We were coming back from a party just like the one tonight. It was pretty recent after my breakup with Josie and I was in a dark place. Alyssa ended up walking with me back to our dorms and before we went our separate ways she asked if I wanted to stay the night. I knew what she was really asking for and I found myself wanting it...no needing it. I needed to feel something other than the numbness that had lingered after Josie left, you know? Alyssa was just there and she wasn’t treating me like the monster everyone thinks I am for what I did to Josie so...I decided to let go, just for one night. Unfortunately, one night became five then a month and before I knew it Alyssa had become my safe haven. And I wanted more from her than just spending the night.”  
Penelope let out a sigh and blinked her eyes, fighting to keep the tears at bay. She hated being vulnerable in front of people but Hope was giving her a look so soft and full of understanding that it made Penelope feel safe and she was honestly sick of keeping everything to herself, she needed to open up and she knew it. After taking a deep breath she kept going, not being able nor wanting to stop.  
“One night after realizing how deeply I cared for Alyssa, I told her I needed a break from the -pardon my French- fucking and so we stopped for two weeks, two weeks that I spent over-thinking everything. The feelings started to become too much for me to handle so I convinced myself to tell her. I was pacing around my room trying to figure out the right words to say so I could knock on her door. The moment I had decided to just go for it I heard giggling coming from inside her room, Alyssa’s giggles, so I did what anyone would do and I eavesdropped. That’s when I heard her say his name, Jed.”

  
His name was said with such venom and sadness that Hope, who until now had felt nothing but anger towards the situation, visibly flinched and moved as if to comfort Penelope with a touch, before dropping her hand again. Penelope, not having noticed the gesture, swallowed down her sobs and with her voice cracking, stubbornly kept going.  
“She invited him in Hope.”  
Neither girl noticed Penelope using the tribrid’s first name for the first time, too focused on the story being told.  
“She invited him in and he spent the night!”  
The ravenette shook her head in disbelief.  
“And I can’t even say anything. I’m the one who was dumb enough to think that she might like me. When in reality she just wanted me to keep her bed warm and once I stopped doing that I became useless to her.”  
Penelope, sick of listening to herself talk, loudly groaned then crumbled on the countertop before looking up to stare at a surprised and still angry Hope.

After staring at each other for a minute, Hope finally spoke and Penelope could have never imagined the words she would say.  
“You do know that I’m a black belt in Taekwondo and Karate and I’m also a very good boxer and MMA fighter, right?”

  
While the witch was definitely turned on and a little bit scared by the dangerous look in Hope’s eyes and the words coming out of her mouth, she was also confused by the subject change. Not wanting to be rude to the person who had let her talk for the last 20 minutes and made her food Penelope hesitantly nodded before asking,  
“Not that I don’t appreciate the very sexy reminder of exactly how fucking jacked you are underneath those ugly ass cardigans, because believe me I really did like seeing it and you really need to get angry more often by the way, but what does this have to do with my confession?”  
While talking Penelope had shamelessly let her eyes wander over the little skin that Hope’s baggy sweats were allowing her to see, her hands, her cleavage, her face, her neck, and her shins since her pants were rolled up.

  
“What the hell Park, stop checking me out, I’m serious. What I'm trying to say is that one word from you and I’ll beat her up. I can even ask my aunt Freya for a spell to dissolve a body if you want to go that far. Murder doesn’t scare me.”

  
Hearing those words the green-eyed girl felt her smile drop and her ears redden. The Mikaelson heir had a determined look on her face, her cheeks were flushed and her hands clenched. Penelope was left awestruck; a passionate Hope was a sight to behold and knowing that it was all because she wanted to avenge her made Penelope's skin tingle and her eyes tear up. While books described the Mikaelsons as heartless and incapable of love, experiencing first hand Hope’s fierce protectiveness was enough to make Penelope understand that her loyalty was unwavering and only family could have taught her that. Hope Mikaelson was as layered as an onion and Penelope Park was nothing but determined to get to her center (pun definitely intended).  
“First of all, the day I stop checking you out is the day you know something is wrong with me, because with a body like that Wolfie you could and should make the cover of swimsuit’s magazine, and I know what I’m talking about because I’m subscribed to it. And second of all, you can’t kill Alyssa just because I was dumb enough to like her more than she likes me. I’m just going to stop fucking her and hide from her forever. Boom no more Alyssa problem.”

  
Penelope nodded along with her own words, attempting to convince herself that she would be okay with her poorly thought out plan but both she and Hope knew that in reality letting Alyssa go wouldn’t be that easy. Drained from the alcohol, the food, and the long conversation about her feelings, the witch got up, stretched, and through a yawn said,  
“Well, would you look at the time, I should go to bed if I want the beauty sleep that I don’t need and you,”  
Penelope walked over to Hope and slowly put her hand on the tribrid’s arm before squeezing the muscles on her bicep.  
“Need to go take a shower.”

  
Hope’s adorable ears reddened at the touch and her mood shifted to disappointment at the mention of Penelope leaving. She didn’t want the night to end yet which was surprising enough on its own since until an hour ago she and Penelope had never had a real conversation. Still, she could see how tired the other girl was so as much as Hope didn’t want to, she needed to let Penelope go.  
“Yeah, well goodnight Park and I hope you manage to get over Chang soon, you deserve better.”

  
They shared one last smile before Penelope turned around to leave, feeling Hope’s burning gaze on her back as she went.


	2. The Day After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The morning afer their first talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone who commented and all the kudos guys!  
> Thanks to posiewaves for the editing and letting me vent, and thanks to ProfessorVoid and Bluejay for letting me share my ideas and helping me with this chapter.  
> I hope you all enjoy the new chapter, please leave a comment if you have any question or just if you like it.

When Penelope woke up it was to a pounding headache and the echoes of a voice telling her that she deserved better. While the headache wasn’t new, the voice certainly was and she couldn’t shake the feeling that she should know who it belonged to.

“Eurgh I’m never drinking again.” 

She groaned, rubbed her eyes, and stretched. As she got up and started taking off her clothes, she, like every morning, sent a quick thank you to her parents for pressuring Alarat the Alcoholic into giving her a single room with her own bathroom. 

After making her way to her private shower Penelope turned on the water and while she waited for it to heat up, she stared at her face in the mirror and started doing her morning pep talk.

“You are Penelope Park, the heir of the Park coven, you are powerful, smart, and fucking gorgeous.” 

With a final smile towards her reflection, the green-eyed girl stepped under the hot spray and began trying to piece together what had happened last night.

Memories came flooding back of the party, seeing Alyssa with Jed and the pain that had accompanied that unfortunate event. However what Penelope quickly realized was that everything after her first drink, including how she’d gotten to bed last night, was completely blank. Apparently she’d gotten so drunk she’d blacked out which meant that trying to force her poor brain to remember anything else from last night would be difficult if not impossible. 

So with a frustrated sigh, she stepped out of the shower, dried off, and began picking out an outfit. Settling on red matching underwear, a black blouse, and grey trousers with black high heels, she then pulled on her usual HBIC facade, pushed all thoughts concerning last night out of her mind, and went down to the cafeteria to eat breakfast with MG. 

\------------

Hope had been thinking about last night since she’d woken up, not even Dr. Saltzman tripping into the lake this morning had been enough to break her cycle of overthinking. She was going crazy with the same questions running through her head. 

_ "Would Penelope be okay?"  _

_ "Were they friends now?"  _

_ "Could she shove Alyssa against a wall and choke her to death or was that going too far?" "Would Jed be okay?" _

And while the last question would probably surprise the witches and vampires, the pack knew that Hope was an overprotective alpha who didn't like seeing her wolves hurt. So, Alyssa hurting Penelope was already bad enough, but hurting Jed made it Hope’s business. That heartless witch was in for a world of hurt.

In the midst of her rage-filled thoughts, Hope wasn't paying attention to where she was going, trusting her nose to guide her. She'd later berate herself for not using her eyes, because of course she had to collide with her least favorite person in this school, besides Alyssa. 

"Oh, hi Hope! I'm so sorry I got so captivated by your beauty that I forgot to slow down." 

Those were the annoying words that came out of a grinning Landon Kirby. It's by looking at his punch-able face that she wanted to repeatedly smack into concrete, that Hope realized she may have anger issues. While she wanted nothing more than to hit him with a blasting spell, she knew that Rafael would get mad at her for bruising his baby brother. So she put on her fakest smile and said something she knew self-centered Landon would hate. 

"Hey Landon, I'd give back the compliment but I'd be lying… Where's your brother? I missed him like crazy." And just like she had predicted the bird's smile slipped off his face at the mention of his brother. 

"What do you mean you've missed him? You guys spent the whole day together yesterday, he only left for the party." Landon had this dumb combination of anger and confusion on his face, it made him look constipated. 

"Look Kirby, I asked you a simple question but you can't seem to be able to answer it so I’m just gonna go sniff Rafael out okay? Thanks for not helping, I guess." And with those last words Hope left Landon standing in the hallway on his own and continued on her path to the cafeteria where she had sniffed out Rafael. 

\------------

Penelope had been listening to MG's atrocious courting ideas for what felt like hours when she finally interrupted him. 

"Look dude, you're a great guy okay? You're nice and attentive, you're a great listener and you make a decent crème brûlée, any girl would be lucky to have you. Just ask the girl out already!" While she loved her best friend, he had a habit of making her want to strangle him sometimes and right now was one of those times. 

"It's easier said than done P, she's Kaleb's sister and she's human, he'll kill me if I try to make a move." His tone had become defeated and if there was one thing Penelope hated more than Lizzie Saltzman, it was a sad MG.

"Come on M those are backwards ideas, it's the 21st century, Kaleb doesn't get a say on who his sister chooses to date. Honestly, there's no one that cares about his sister more than you and he'll see that one day. So just go for it before Saltzman beats you to the punch. " 

MG had been nodding his head during the majority of his best friend's speech but the last sentence had him gasping in shock. 

"What do you mean before Saltzman beats me to the punch? Josie would never do that because she knows I like Kym. I've been talking to her about it as much as I talk to you. She'd never betray me like that." The poor vampire's eyes were as wide as saucers and his breathing was erratic. He looked like a crazy man and Penelope almost felt bad for telling him what she had heard, but he needed to know. 

"I wasn't talking about Josie, man." At those words MG's eyes got wider if that was even possible. 

"Lizzie wants to date Kym? Are you fucking kidding me right now?" The witch would have laughed at the vulgar words that perfect MG never used had she not seen the way her best friend's shoulders had dropped and his gaze lowered. 

"I'm sorry dude but yesterday I overheard Lizzie telling Kaleb she was gonna ask Kym on a date today. She wasn't asking him for his blessing or anything she was just giving him a heads-up you know? That's why I kept pushing you to go talk to her. So you'd ask first." 

Penelope's soft confession brought a smile to the boy's face. While many saw the raven-haired witch as a cold-hearted bitch, he knew better. She was a protective, kind-hearted friend who would drown the person who was mean to you with one hand and comfort you with the other.

"I think I'll just tell Lizzie that I'm interested in Kym as well. If Kym is open to it, she could let each of us take her on a date and then keep dating the one she likes more." Penelope nodded, having already known that MG wouldn't want to hurt Lizzie by taking away her chance to ask the Hawkins girl on a date. 

"Alright M, that's your choice to make. Can we go back to eating now? " She turned back to her bowl of Lucky Charms cereal (her favorite) and dug back in. But to eat in peace would be too good to be true so of course Milton had to interrupt her again. 

"Uh don't look but I think Hope Mikaelson is staring at you. What did you do to her?" Penelope frowned and turned around, catching Mikaelson's eyes with her own before the auburn haired girl quickly turned back to her beta, Rafael.

"Nothing, I've never talked to her before. Maybe she just realized that she, like everyone else at this school, wants to tap this." The witch had a smirk on her lips, one that screamed she was thinking dirty thoughts. MG made a disgusted face which in turn made her laugh at his innocence. 

  
  


Across the cafeteria Hope having heard Penelope's answer to MG's question abruptly stood up, startling a still talking Rafael. 

"I'm sorry Raf but I need to go punch some stuff. Catch you later?" She took her tray and got ready to leave before she was stopped by a warm and calloused hand. Rafael had grabbed her arm and was studying her with a frown on his face. 

"Are you okay?" 

Hope sighed, she didn't want to lie to him. She decided to omit the truth instead. 

"No I'm not but I don't want to talk about it." 

He watched her face carefully for a few seconds before getting up and grabbing his own tray. 

"Okay then, let's go spar." And with that said he put away their trays before wrapping his arm around her shoulder and guiding her towards the exit. Hope's heart warmed at the action and his understanding of her boundaries. She put her own arm around his waist and took a moment to thank the universe for having sent Raf her way. 


End file.
